Ice wine from New York and other places received nationwide coverage this week thanks to an article by John Flesher of the Associated Press on this year's long wait until the grapes could be picked.

To legally be labeled Ice Wine, the grapes must be picked when they're actually frozen on the vine (as opposed to picking them earlier and then freezing them). Often that happens in December, sometimes even around Thanksgiving, but this year's string of unseasonably warm weather delayed everything.

I was quoted as saying, "What's ironic about the ice wine harvest is it's one of the few times when people actually say, 'Great, it's going to be bitter cold'. We were kind of twiddling our thumbs, but it finally came together."

So on a cold Tuesday morning early in January, picking crews scoured the vineyards for the tiny, ugly, frozen grapes which will become the nectar of the gods. And one of New York's premier ice wine producers, Casa Larga Vineyards, in Fairport in Monroe County, is once again hosting the NY Ice Wine Festival on February 18 featuring seven producers of true Ice Wine.